saturation...

After attending a funeral of a friend Friday, then attending the wake and funeral of Ted Kennedy that night and next day, today I can truthfully say, I have been saturated in the Love of Christ. I am totally and completely filled to the brim.

Funerals do that to me. There is a part of me that no matter what church or who gives the eulogy, I walk away with a sense of being alive. I am a new person for a few days, basking in what i have received.

The wake of Ted Kennedy was like the most rick dessert you have ever tasted. Story after Story of those he had touched. We laughed and cried, I felt like I had known him. No pretenses, healthy bi-partisanship and memories of a tragic life lived out with honor and yet no pretense of perfection. At the end after the most joyous rendition of Just a Closer Walk With Thee, sung like I have never heard by the Boston Community Church, I was flying high. Then at the end, when they started singng When Irish Eyes Are Smiling, you would have thought I was Irish, through and through. I sang my little heart out and meant every word.

This is the entiery of John Culver's speech - Well, well worth your time. To be honored by those who loved you whether they agreed or bitterly disagreed with you, is a wonderful thing. There is nothing greater than to be honored in humor. Nothing.

After a night of this kind of wonderful, was the religious part of the final farewell. The casket drapped by a beautiful cream-colored cloth was touched and kissed frequently by family and friends alike. It was a time that you couldn't help but feel the Love of Christ. It was almost magical to know that Someday it will be you or someone you love and you will go through what this family had to. It was just 2 weeks ago that they buried Ted's sister, Maria Schriver's mother. This family is tight, that fact was written on every minute of this public display.

I walked away wanting to be a part of the Kennedy family but knowing that I am the daughter of the King. I see this kinship with cousins, and family and imagine grand times but it was not mine to be a Kennedy. The King had something else for this daughter, something that was for her alone. The saturation this weekend is gift enough...